Ephreck
by Marle Of The Gui Clan
Summary: When the group finds a restricted planet, they decide to investigate, but what they find is not something that should found at all. Something that shouldn't be awake.


Narrator: The search for the Black Star Dragonballs has led our heros, Goku, Pan, Trunks, Giru, Gohan, Vegeta, and Piccolo, to the South Quadrant of charted space. They have searched for 10 months, and have come up with 6 of the 7 Dragonballs. With the cast wished each to the age of their chosen teen year, they have resumed the search for the six-star DragonBall. When we last saw them they were in sight of the planet in which lay the last Dragonball. A planet known as... Ephreck.

"I'm not going down to that godforsaken planet! I know what lives there!" Vegeta, 17 years old and grouchy, growled.

"Well, if it's enough to make you scared, maybe it's a bad idea altogether." Our 16-year Gohan tried.

"The Earth will blow up, guys, we have two months, and it'll take atleast another month and two weeks to get back to Earth from here." 16 year old Trunks calculated. "If it's difficult we won't make it, if they are not as you say, then we'll make it with time to spare."

"With our luck we'll miss our deadline." Pan, of 14, sighed.

"Don't jynx us." A surly 18 year old Piccolo growled.

"Wait, who lives there?" Asked Goku of 17.

"They aren't whos, they are whats. Lab rats. A bad expiriment. I'd rather let Earth Blow up." Vegeta shuddered visably.

"Well, tell us what happened, from the beginning. It's better to go in there with the right information than to go in blind and risk upsetting the natives." Gohan explained, as he began the decent to the planet.

"Wait! Is this where I think it is?" Piccolo asked, eyes wide in fear, and a moment of detatchment crossed his features.

"Yes. The planetary Wars started right where our ship is." Vegeta informed.

"Giru! Giru! Restricted Area! Giru! Giru!" Giru chirped incessantly, as the ship touched the ground.

"Huh? Giru what do you mean?" Pan asked.

"I'll explain. I was there, afterall." Vegeta sighed.

Vegeta POV/Narration.

It started twenty years before I ever went to Earth. When Vejiita-Sei was being run by Freiza. Some self-righteous scientists and soldiers, including Bardock and Turles, decided to make a being to destroy Freiza. They tested, and tubed, and tortured what they made to see what it could do.

The day I was there watching them, I saw the girls screaming in pain as they were ripped apart, their men go wild with Rage, and had to be sedated heavily to make sure they didn't hurt anyone. There were men being tested on, seeing how far they could go, and when they started getting out of control, they were killed immediatley.

They were called many things, Failed-Projects, the Forbidden, Kikion's warriors, Ephreckians, and by all, they are known as Graders.

The ones they thought were perfect began to become sick, they wouldn't work, and refused to be tested on. They were being slaughtered after awhile, and the Sayains named them the Failed Projects. Then the problems became worse. For some reason the Failed projects suddenly started to come back to life. Regenerating. We resumed testing on them, and began merging them with other species, animals, and technology.

They got too powerful to control, and they wouldn't stay dead. Soon they broke out of the laboratory led by their 'God' Kikion. They started to kill Sayains faster than we could kill them. They stole ships, and moved off planet. They killed out other races entirely. They destroyed planets with a blink of an eye. They overran this planet, and called it home. No one has heard from them since the planetary wars ended, and they were trapped in Cryo-tubes.

They are on that planet, and they are alive. They are psychic and can take control over other peoples bodies. Some wear eyepatches, and some are missing limbs. They were tested on. They were made in laboratories, and torn apart piece by piece. Do not pity the creatures, they will not pity you.

I know I can't stop you from going down there, but I have to warn you. What you see will be gruesome. No matter what, even if hell freezes over, or even if they are looking out at you, and even if they scream for help, no matter what they look like, or how much pain you can sense on them--- DO NOT LET THEM OUT!

End POV

"The women are far stronger than the men, so just be careful." Piccolo ordered as the ship landed.

Everyone stepped out of the ship in horror. It looked like 56 cryo-tubes had crash landed, or were dropped from the air. They had landed in the midst of them. Vegeta stayed on board, and everyone else left in states of horror. They were mangled, bloody, half-animals. They each had the ears, tails, hands and feet of the animals they were obviously a part of. Piccolo was drawn closer to a certain one.

It was a female girl with huge, beautiful eyes, blond hair, and very small, excluding the chest area. Her ears were of a White Tiger, the rest of her following suit. She looked into his eyes, and she blinked, signaling she was awake.

"You don't have to let me out. I don't expect you to." She said, loud enough so he could hear through the glass. "Infact, I want you to leave, okay?" She asked quietly. "Take what you need and leave."

Piccolo looked at her oddly.

"It's no joke. I admit I don't like it in here, but I know I deserve this for everything I've done." She smiled. "Everyone else went into hybernation. I'm the only one that doesn't. If you're looking for the thing that fell from the sky it's about a mile to your right." She pointed. "I know that this sounds weird, but can I introduce myself? I've had many years to find myself a name, and I think it's suitable, so would you give me your opinion?"

Piccolo nodded.

"Hara-Kiri Hajori Nao. You can call me HK for the time you're here." She said happily. "How was that?"

"It's a good name, though the meaning is questionable, Death for your kind by splitting your stomach open because you've disgraced them, protect those who gain your loyalty, and food." Piccolo smirked.

"It's quite suiting, actually." She explained. "I'm a Multi-Grader, I'm loyal to those who gain my trust, I have killed myself for my kind, and I'm kind of hungry." She chuckled.

The smirk didn't leave Piccolo's face. "Interesting."

"Thank you." She nodded to him. "The others are beginning to wake. You have gained my trust, so I shall keep them asleep until you leave. I know your companions are Sayains, direct derivatives from the ones who made us, but I'll bite my tongue, and keep you and your companions safe. Just be quick, alright?" HK smiled at him. "It's under water. The water isn't safe to drink, so just dive and get it, if you drink from it, then you'll get sick, and then I will have to heal you."

Piccolo just nodded, and flew off to the designated spot where HK said it would be. It was under a lake, but he dived into it with no trouble, and retrieved it. He flew back to the Cryo-tube. During this whole excapade, the group was wandering mindlessly around, and looking at all the different types, and kinds.

"Get the Sayains in the ship, NOW!" HK ordered Piccolo. "Knock them out, and get out of here!" She yelled.

"Why?" Piccolo asked.

"Just trust me, I've been honest with you so far, haven't I? I know you shouldn't trust me at all, but please, have some blind faith in me. You've known me for only 10 minutes, yes, but I can't keep them knocked out much longer." The girl wailed.

Piccolo locked eyes with her, and waited a moment. The eyes closed, and she began to pant in pain, holding her head in agony.

"Get out of here, please! I don't want anymore blood on my hands!" HK ordered.

Piccolo did as she had told him. He knocked each of them out, each with a little trouble, getting punched in the gut more than once before succeeding, and put them in the ship with the Dragonball. He went back out to the Cryo-Tube, and looked in her eyes once more.

"What are you still doing here? I'm tring to help you!" HK ordered.

Piccolo looked in her eyes. "Come with us."

HK looked him in the eyes. "You know very well I can't do that. I heard what Vegeta said. Even if hell freezes over-- I will be shunned by my peopl--"

"Since when do I listen to him, and you listen to them?" Piccolo asked.

"Don't make me do this, Piccolo, I don't want to take over your body." HK sighed.

Piccolo didn't know what was going on with him. He wanted to take this girl away from this torture. She was trustable. It was plainly simple. She new she did wrong, she knew she had to redeem herself.

"You can repent for what you've done." Piccolo informed.

"Leave, you can come back, and see me anytime, but while there are Sayains here, it is unsafe." HK said. "You will all die like this! I can't let that rest on my concious. I'm sorry."

The next thing Piccolo knew he was laying in a bed on Earth. He knew what she had done, she had taken control of his body, and drove them the entire way back to Earth, then knocked him out after telling his shipmates he had been controlled by a Grader. Piccolo sat up, and growled in pain. He had such a migrane.

"Piccolo! You're up!" Goku smiled.

"What happened back there?" Gohan asked.

"I made nice with the locals, got the dragonball, knocked you out, and she drove home through my body." Piccolo rolled his eyes.

"You should've taken her with us." Vegeta said.

"I wasn't allowed. She wouldn't let me-- How did you know about her?" Piccolo asked.

"I almost had to marry her." Vegeta shuddered. "She slaughtered all the Sayains there. She's a blood thirsty wench who can't keep her mouth shut, the mouthy girl..."

Piccolo didn't know why, but he punched Vegeta in the face, sending him through a few walls. "Leave HK out of this."

"Oh, so now she found a name!" Vegeta chuckled. "Last time I knew her she was called 27a. 27a was a fucked up girl who stabbed people in the back, and kicked a man when they were down." Vegeta wiped the blood from his mouth. "What you see in 27a, I don't know, but you'll regret it."

Piccolo jumped on him, and started pounding him into the ground, until there was a deep, wide crator beneath them. Piccolo seemed to calm down after that.

"You destroyed my house!" Trunks bawled. "I just payed it off, too!"

"27a was used as a whore on Veji---" Vegeta never finished that sentence, he was torn into pieces. Well, not really, but he was so beat up after Piccolo was done that he couldn't see straight for a week.

"Never talk about her that way." Piccolo growled.

"Gammpa, why did you say all of that?" Pan asked.

"To prove a point." Vegeta sat up, panting, and cringing in pain. "She did something to Piccolo. Piccolo wouldn't normally of cared what I said about her. Whatever she did it seems to impact him to a point where it seems unsafe to say the number after 26." Vegeta sighed.

"She led me to the Dragonball, and kept the other Graders asleep while she took over my body and drove us the entire way home." Piccolo growled. "You'd all be dead, so would the Earth. She kept them asleep, she kept them calm, and stopped their powers from taking over your bodies to free them. She saved you, you bastard, show some respect. She knows she did wrong, and didn't want more blood on her plate."

It was silent other than Trunks bawling over his house.

"I'm going back to get her, she's willing to redeem herself, and I don't think she should have to stay in there any longer. You wouldn't leave Goku in there." Piccolo left via IT.

"Goku's saved the Earth, though." Trunks sobered up slightly.

"In a way I guess she did too." Gohan sighed. "Vegeta, I thought you said not to open the Cryo-tubes, why are you letting one out?"

Vegeta sighed.

Piccolo had gotten there several days later. Piccolo searched for HK until he found her Cryo-tube. Piccolo stared at her a moment, wondering if she had really even been awake then, or if it had been a hallucination. Piccolo looked at her small frame, and wondered if this was a wise choice. He looked around him. Their eyes were open, they were awake. She was not. They had done something to her. He could see HK trying to wake up, and being unable to manage. Piccolo put his hand on the Cryo-Tube, and IT'ed a few planets away, HK's Tube going with him.

HK awoke instantly. Piccolo looked at her worriedly.

"What have you done?" HK asked. "If you let me out you will damn us all." She said softly. "Many a bounty-hunter would pay unimaginable prices for me, for our location, to see us dead." HK sighed into her hands. "I do not trust myself." HK said softly. "After what I have done, you should show no remorse for leaving me. Why don't you send me back, I'm already in trouble with my people for helping you at all."

"I'm bringing you home." Piccolo said softly. "Of that, I promise."

Narrator: And so ends this installation of DBGT. Does anyone know what is going on? Next Episode: Vegeta explains his odd actions, and his strange connection with the Failed Projects. HK and Piccolo return home, alright, but whose home is it?

Narrator: We join our Earthed heroes in the Kitchen of Capsule Corp., while Piccolo and HK travel through space. After Piccolo's promise, and Vegeta's secrecy, will things go as the two had planned? What does Vegeta have to say about their visitor? What feelings hidden deep will emerge when he sees HK's face?

Well, it seems we have more time, so here's a preview.

Vegeta Sighed. "Because I almost married her. Because we had shared a bond stronger than any Sayains had. Because I still love her, even though I slaughtered her."

"Are you sure she won't be angry with you?" Goku asked.

"She probably is, and I know she will murder me for it eventually, why not now?"

Seven days passed, Piccolo hadn't let her out yet, but traveled with her while she was in her Tube. When Piccolo touched Earth with his feet, Everyone gathered. Bulma, Master Roshi, Krillin, Tien, Vegeta, All of them. Piccolo looked to the Cryo-Tube and smiled.

"Welcome home." Piccolo said.

"Please. The second you open the Cryo-tube, a million Evils will be upon you. Graders are bad luck. Thousands of Bounty hunters will come to Earth, and kill innocents to find my location. The location of Ephreck." HK pleaded. "Please, I do not wish that upon anyone! Talk with your people first! Tell them everything they are bargaining for when I'm released. If it's a solid consensus, then I will do as you wish of me, but please, all I ask is that you think about this!"

"What's going on?" Tien asked. "Is she who I think she is?" Tien approached the Tube, Piccolo snarled at him, trying to scare him away. "I believe you are the Multi-Grader Metro wrote about." Tien looked at her hands and feet, her ears.

"Please, do not let me out." HK begged.

"Are you who I say you are?" Tien asked.

"Yes, I am 27a." HK broke into hysterical sobs. "I killed Trillions of people for the sake of my people, I have killed in cold blood, and I do not trust myself anylonger." HK's voice waived. "How can you trust a monster?"

Tien smiled softly at her. "You are no monster. Metro told of loyalty in his messages, and kindness, of you dying to save him and the Sayains, the time that no one knows about. The time when you saved your greatest enemy, and killed regretfully." Tien paused, waving, and showing the group rather than HK what she was, who she was. "Did you not cry after every life you took?"

HK only managed to nod. "I... I killed, and I don't trust myself enough to not kill again." HK looked down. "I would surely take my own life before anothers."

"Then protect the one you trust. If someone tries to harm Piccolo, wouldn't you kill to save him?" Gohan asked

HK nodded. "I would."

"Then trust Earth, and protect Earth." Bulma smiled. "You have our permission to kill, the entire planets permission, so long as it is in the defense of Earth and it's people."

HK looked at her. "Really?"

"Really." Bulma nodded.

"There are more problems, though, this Tube is my only life support. I'm A Multi-Grader, and if I don't know how badly damaged I am." HK smiled, and hung her head. "Please take me back to Ephreck. I won't survive here."

"Piccolo, it sounds rather like you took her against her will." Krillin said.

"She went willingly." Piccolo smirked. "She put up no fight."

Trunks glared deeply at him. "HK, would you rather stay here and repent for yourself, or go back to Ephreck, and live eternally with the guilt in your heart?"

"Wh-What's a heart?" HK asked softly.

"Have you ever loved before?" Gohan asked.

"What is loved?"

"Has anyone ever told you they loved you?" Pan asked.

"Never. Or not expressed how you say it." HK shook her head.

While this was going on, Vegeta stepped to the Cryo-tube, and put his palm on the glass. She had never loved? Had she ever loved him? Did she know it in other words? Vegeta opened the Cryo-Tube, and heard the hiss of decompression. HK's eyes widened greatly. The glass panel pulled itself up, and tucked itself in a storing compartment. Vegeta put his hand on HK's cheek.

HK looked at him in awe, leaning towards the hands, staring up into his eyes shockedly. Vegeta stroked her face with his thumb gently. HK's breath was coming up short. Vegeta let a small smile onto his face, not menacing of any kind, but one that actually touched his eyes. Vegeta put his free hand on her shoulder softly.

Vegeta nodded softly, and pulled her into a hug.

"Love is just like what we had long ago." Vegeta said kindly into her blue hair, a hand on her her back, the other behind her head. "Do you feel it?" He asked softly. He took a step back, to look at her.

HK nodded slowly. Piccolo 'ahemed' loudly and broke the moment. HK turned to Piccolo.

"I'm out, and alive." She said shockedly. "The world hasn't ended..."

"I think the sun is shining brighter." Tien smiled kindly. "And you're the reason."

HK smiled, and blushed, looking to Bulma. "I suppose you are my Gehn." HK said, and kneeled, facing her, a few feet away. Bulma was confused completely, and babbled for a moment, trying to get HK to stand, and HK refusing.

"I don't know what a Gehn is." Bulma said to her. "But I don't think you should bow..."

"Please, Gehn." HK said softly, and then looked up at her. "Vegeta, if you would translate?"

"Gehning is like . . . Foster Care." Vegeta tried. "Except there is this whole bonding thing, and no one practices it other than the Graders."

"Gehning is like being a surrogate Mother, but more of a sister role." Goku smiled.

"Why is she bowing?" Botan asked.

Vegeta chuckled. "I'm not even sure of that."

HK's anger flared up, and she glared up at Vegeta. "Don't act as if I'm being weird." She growled. HK bit her bottom lip, and stood. "I apologize for my words." HK walked to her Cryo-Tube. "My anger is unsafe to all of you, and Vegeta knows very well how I can't control it." HK climbed back in. "I wish not to harm you."

Piccolo shook his head, and slammed his foot through the side of the Cryo-Tube, breaking it beyond repair. HK Glared at him, hatred deep in her eyes.

"How dare you!" HK swore repeatedly at him, and ended up crying hysterically. "How dare you!"

Vegeta scowled and snarled at Piccolo.

"I don't want to hurt anyone, and my anger is far worse than anything you've seen. Don't anger me!" She yelled. "I'm trying to be sweet and kind here, and you are not making it easier!"

"Hit me." Piccolo ordered.

"What?" HK asked softly.

"I said hit me, and if you don't, then you will find yourself face down in pain." Piccolo said flatly.

"I--"

Piccolo tripped her, and she fell, and held her shin for a moment.

"Hit me back." Piccolo ordered.

"I will not ha-"

Piccolo slammed his foot into her face, she landed many feet away. "Hit me."

"I don't want to--"

Piccolo kicked her again. "Hit me back."

The others tried to step in, and Vegeta shook his head. "Now it's time to let the pupil train the master." Vegeta ushered them all away, the left to their own homes, somewhat reluctantly, himself watching from about 15 yards away.

"Hit me dammit! Are you going to let me push you around like this?" Picolo ground his foot into her back.

"It's the least I deserve!" HK yelled.

Piccolo's foot was gone, and she sat up. Piccolo took of his turban, and his cape, and sat patiently.

"You're absolutely right." Piccolo nodded. "It is the least you deserve. For all those people you killed, it's what your people deserve. They deserved what happened."

HK growled. "Bite your tongue!"

"They deserved to die, be raped, tested on, and you're right, you deserve every ounce of what people gave you. 'Failed Project' is definatly the right term for you and your fellow objects." Piccolo said calmly.

"Do not speak of us like that!" HK said dangerously quietly.

"You don't deserve love, or pity for what you've done." Piccolo's eyes closed. "You deserve to live in the oblivion Vegeta put you in."

It was at that moment HK exploded. Her power exceeded super Sayain 4, and went higher still. "You know very well that my power is limitless! Do not tempt me!" She growled quietly. "Do not speak of my people so lowly. It wasn't our fault we are who we are! It isn't our fault! We did nothing to deserve this!" HK's power swirled around her, a crater growing in the ground.

"You are destroying the only planet that has given you it's trust." Piccolo warned. "You are going to kill me if you keep this up."

HK's eyes widened. She sighed, and powered down as much as she could.

"Hit me!" Piccolo growled.

HK landed one punch, the ground next to Piccolo. "You are not the one I am angry with. I had every chance to stop you, and I did no such thing. You are not the one who deserves my anger, but I swear, if you ever insult my people, you will not live to regret it." She said plainly, and powered down completely. "Thank you." She wrapped her arms around Piccolo's neck and leaned into him, tiredly. "I needed that."

"I know." Piccolo nodded. "I'm not stupid enough to invoke the anger of a Grader without a plan."

"I know it is not you who deserves my anger, and I have yet to find who does." HK smiled softly, eyes drooping greatly. "I haven't felt tired in so many years."

Narrator: And so ends this intallment. There are more mysteries to the Graders than there seems to be. Why did HK go AWOL at their wedding? Is she the reason Vegeta shut himself off from the world? Is it the fact that She's back that he's finally become someone he thought had died long ago? Stay tuned for scenes from the next: DragonBall Grand Tour!

Next Episode: -BountyHunter- HK tries to adapt to life on Earth, but who is this lurking Shadow after her? Why has the team closed the ranks, and seem to keep a dangerous secret from HK? Why are they so over protective? What is there budding between Piccolo and HK? And what about Tien? Why does he know so much about HK?


End file.
